Real Salt Lake releases 2014 regular season schedule

SANDY, Utah – Fresh off of advancing to MLS Cup 2013 on Sunday night, Real Salt Lake learned its 2014 Major League Soccer regular season schedule on Monday. The Claret-and-Cobalt will begin its 34-game slate with back-to-back games against fellow Western Conference power LA Galaxy, opening the season at LA on Saturday, March 8 before returning to Utah for the home opener against the Galaxy two weeks later on Saturday, March 22.

Seven Real Salt Lake regular season games will be broadcast nationally next year, with NBC Sports Network airing six Claret-and-Cobalt matches and ESPN2 broadcasting one of RSL’s regular season contests. Real Salt Lake will release its local television schedule at a later date.

In contrast to previous years, Real Salt Lake will begin the season with a fairly balanced travel schedule, with six of the club’s first 12 matches coming at the friendly confines of Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL’s longest regular season home stand will be three games, with the Claret-and-Cobalt hosting Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, July 19, Montreal Impact on Thursday, July 24 and New York Red Bulls on Wednesday, July 30. The club’s longest road trip will also be three games, with RSL playing at the Chicago Fire on Saturday, May 3, at the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday, May 7 and at the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, May 11.

Real Salt Lake will start 2014 with a string of high-profile contests, taking on the Galaxy in the team’s first two contests before meeting MLS Cup 2013 opponent Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park on Saturday, April 5 in the Utah side’s fourth game of the year. RSL will host Western Conference Championship series opponent Portland Timbers at Rio Tinto Stadium two weeks after facing Kansas City, taking on the Timbers on Saturday, April 26 in the club’s sixth game of the year. Other notable regular season matchups include: Saturday, May 17 v. Colorado Rapids (First Rocky Mountain Cup Presented by Mark Miller Subaru match of 2014), Saturday, May 31 at Seattle Sounders FC, Saturday, July 12 at LA, Saturday, Aug. 2 at Colorado (RMC Finale), Friday, Oct. 17 at Portland and Wednesday, Oct. 22 v. Chivas USA (Regular season and home finale).

Real Salt Lake will not play from Saturday, June 7-Saturday, June 28, while MLS takes an extended break for the Group Stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Currently, the only way for Real Salt Lake fans to secure tickets to any of the 17 regular season home games on RSL’s 2014 schedule is to “Join the Pride” by becoming a RSL Season Ticket Holder. Fans can purchase 2014 RSL Season Tickets at the Rio Tinto Stadium box office, over the phone at 801-727-2700 or at www.RealSaltLake.com/Tickets. Real Salt Lake will announce details for single-game, multi-game and group ticket availability at a later date.

The 2014 MLS Regular Season will conclude Sunday, Oct. 26, followed by the MLS Cup Playoffs and the championship game, MLS Cup 2014.

Real Salt Lake will play for its second MLS Cup trophy on Saturday, Dec. 7, taking on Sporting Kansas City at 2:00 p.m. MT at Sporting Park in MLS Cup 2013. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN, UniMas, TSN2, and RDS.

RSL/MLS 2014 Regular Season Schedule Notes

Each of the League’s 19 clubs will play 34 matches, 17 at home and 17 away, during 35 weeks in this, Major League Soccer’s 19th season. Within each conference, each club will play the same number of in-conference and out-of-conference games, following the competition format announced ahead of the 2012 season, and followed each of the last two years.

As it did during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, MLS will take an extended break during next summer’s 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, taking three weeks off during the tournament’s Group Stage.

Real Salt Lake has five bye weekends during the season – March 14, June 14, June 21, Oct. 12 & Oct. 26 (Saturday match-dates listed) – two of which coincide with the previously listed FIFA World Cup break. RSL’s non-FIFA bye weeks come on Saturday, July 6 and again on Saturday, October 26, the final weekend of the 2013 MLS regular season.

The “Holiday Road” will again lead to Rio Tinto Stadium, as RSL will host games on Memorial Day weekend (Saturday, May 24 v. FC Dallas), Independence Day (Friday, July 4 v. New England Revolution) and Pioneer Day (Thursday, July 24 v. Montreal Impact).

RSL will play three regular season games in a span of nine days or less three times in the 2014 regular season. RSL will play three games in a week in the aforementioned May 3, May 7 and May 11 stretch at Chicago, San Jose and Houston; on May 31, June 4 and June 7 at Seattle, at Columbus and home to Portland; and on July 24, July 30 and Aug. 2 home to Montreal and New York and at Colorado.

RSL will have a slew of Friday games in 2014, playing five regular season matches on Friday. Here is the full list of RSL’s Friday matches: July 4 v. New England, Aug. 22 at Dallas, Sept. 12 at Seattle, Sept. 19 v. Colorado and Oct. 17 at Portland. RSL’s final four Friday matches will all be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network.

RSL will close the regular season with a game at Portland on Friday, Oct. 17 and home against Chivas USA on Wednesday, Oct. 22. It will be the second straight year that RSL will finish the season with an away match at Portland on the weekend followed by a midweek home game against Chivas.